Hello Everyone,

    Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation filled with rest, relaxation, adventure, and memory-making experiences.  Thank you for your kind sentiments and generous gifts. The basket was beautiful, and I especially enjoyed the Caress Day Spa and Macy's gift cards.  I feel so honored and appreciated! 🎉

**Important Announcements/Field Trips:

Mountain Science Fair- Wednesday, March 6th:

Your child will receive a Science Fair packet to read over with you and begin planning for a project next Monday.  All students in grades 4-6 are required to complete science fair projects at home.  Clear guidelines and timeline are included in the information.   

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ and SC County Science Fair Link provide helpful resources for project planning.  Please contact me with any questions.

Tech Museum Field Trip: Thursday January 31st at 9:00

Thursday January 31st from 8:15-1:30. Drivers needed and appreciated. Please be sure that you have filled out the necessary DMV paperwork with the office if you would like to volunteer.  We are able to bring 7 chaperones this year. Permission slips go home Monday in your child's folder or you may sign up on our blog here.  

Simplicity of Electricity Lab

We leave school at 8:15 sharp so that we arrive at the museum in San Jose at 9:00. We will gather on Park Avenue and then go into the museum as a group. A brief orientation will follow where we will receive our wristbands and tech tags. Our Simplicity of Electricity Lab begins at 9:30 and runs 90 minutes. We will go straight to the Oceans IMAX which begins promptly at 11:00 and runs 45 minutes. Students and chaperones may eat their sack lunches during the movie. We will then visit some of the exhibits like Body Worlds Decoded before heading back to school at 1:30.

**Please Note: Body Worlds Decoded is now part of the general museum admission. Please view the Body Worlds Decoded flyer here and in the Monday folder so that you are aware of what it is.

For tech parking and info

Parking Information:

The Tech offers $5 flat-rate parking validation at the Second and San Carlos Street garage, a five-story structure (enter from Second or Third Streets), and/or the San Jose McEnery Convention Center garage (enter from Market Street or Almaden Boulevard). Validation is available in the museum lobby during operating hours. Validation may not be valid during any city special event. Limited handicapped parking is available at The Tech’s main entrance on South Market Street.

Santa Cruz County Science Fair: Saturday March 2nd @ Plantronics 
(registration deadline: Fri., Feb. 8)

SC County Science Fair Link  We encourage students to enter their projects into the Santa Cruz County Science Fair. Please view the website with your child to consider whether she or he is interested in this opportunity.  The website includes helpful ideas as well as guidelines for projects. If your child is interested in participating, he/she is strongly encouraged to begin a project as soon as possible.

Upcoming Dates:

MLK, Jr. HOLIDAY/ NO SCHOOL-- Monday, January 21st
SCCOE Spelling Bee-- Saturday, January 26th at UCSC

Tech Museum field trip-- Thursday January 31st, 9:00
HOLIDAY/ NO SCHOOL-- Monday, February 11th

HOLIDAY/ NO SCHOOL-- Monday, February 18th
READ-A-THON-- February 4th-February 28th

SC County Science Fair--Saturday, March 2nd

Mountain Science Fair-- Wednesday, March 6th

Typing Club

Typing practice!! typingclub.com

We will be typing in class each week.  Please let me know if computer access is a problem.

Curriculum Updates: January

ELA: we will begin our literature book: Patty Reed's Doll.  In addition, we continue to honor our VIP each week and listen and respond to presentations by students. 

SC Symphony: daily musical compositions are introduced and enjoyed every morning.

Mindfulness: best practices in mindfulness are being incorporated in our classroom this year.

Harmony: best practices school-wide curriculum for building a strong social-emotional community within our classrooms.

AR Reading: Accelerated Reader continues to be an important part of our reading program.  Students are reading appropriate AR books found through the AR book find link and then quizzing on them within 24 hours of finishing their book.  It is critical to support your child in book selection (most books are in our school and classroom libraries) and to remind them to read, read, read whenever the opportunity arises--in the car, while waiting for an appt., to and from school, before bed time, on a Sunday in your jammies, etc.  These books should travel to and from the classroom in a daily fashion for classroom DEAR (drop everything and read) sessions as well as nightly reading homework and beyond.  Students have a goal of 14.5 points for the second trimester.  Each book has a certain amount of points it is worth.  This information is listed with reading level and appropriateness (grade school, middle school, high school, for example).  Points per book range from 3 to 5, generally, with longer books being worth more points.  On average, this is going to mean your child is reading anywhere from 3-5 books a Trimester. That said, help your child select books that are on their reading level (their latest DRA2 level), and have high interest for them.  This will allow them to accomplish reading books from start to finish successfully.

    

Math: we will continue fractions in both 4th and 5th grade. Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. We will continue to review these concepts.  POM solving and presentations (problem of the month) continue. Silicon Valley Math Initiative (SVMI) MARS tasks continue all year.

**Keep Practicing: times tables should be rehearsed and memorized. 

Science: we start the Foss module called "Energy" for the New Year. This includes magnets, electricity, circuits and a field trip to the Tech Museum Thursday Jan. 31, 2019 with a lab and an IMAX on Oceans as well as exhibits.

Social Studies: American Colonies projects--posters and presentations, research papers.

Writing: summary, narrative and informational essays are currently being worked on. 

Grammar: Study of various grammar: prepositions, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and adjective clauses. Shades of meaning vocabulary, capitalization, quotation marks, citing evidence within texts.  Figurative language: simile, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young